Good afternoon. Often, anime is a film adaptation of a finished work in a different format. Most of them are based on manga or light novels. It also happens that the primary source can be a visual novel. However, from time to time, anime based on games are released. Yes, visual novels are, in fact, games too. But this genre is more focused on the story and characters rather than the gameplay itself. But when they take games as a basis, in which the emphasis is primarily on gameplay, then doubts about the feasibility of such a decision begin to appear.
I played Nier: Automata and really liked it. Not so much, of course, that I went through it to all the available endings or went to the Internet for theories in order to understand the secrets of the game world. However, the game still gave me a pleasant experience, was able to interest me in the plot and entertain me with the gameplay. And so, when an anime based on it was announced, I was intrigued, but at the same time it made me wary – how would an anime based on a game of this type turn out?.
It’s one thing when they decide to film mobile gacha games. As a result, anime of this nature are perceived as just advertising, so viewers don’t expect much from them. For example, titles like Tact Opus. Fate and Arknights: Prelude to Dawn is a good example of this. But what if the basis is an AAA project?? Well, as Cyberpunk: Edge Runners showed, this can be a successful project. However, there the authors only took the game world as a basis, while the story itself was not directly related to the events in the original source from CD Projekt Red. And, it would seem, knowing all the tricks of the plot of Nier: Automata, the authors could have done the same thing, coming up with some alternative to the story from the game. However, from the first episode it became clear that the anime would follow the path of the classic film adaptation.
So, what does this work tell us about?. Distant future, aliens have invaded our planet, sending here an endless number of their robots, which are simply called machines here. Most of the population was exterminated, and people who had money and power eventually moved to the moon. Those who remained on Earth became rebels who still fight the invaders to this day. However, in addition to them, the battle is also fought by Yorha fighters – advanced androids created on the basis of people specifically to counter the alien threat. The protagonists are two such androids: the girl 2B, who fights in the vanguard, and the boy 9S, who specializes in hacking enemy systems. They are sent to cooperate with a detachment of rebels, who are located near the place where suspicious activity of the cars was noticed, and to understand the situation.
I’ll say right away that I’m https://gibsoncasino.co.uk/bonus/ used to perceiving anime as independent works. Therefore, even though I will refer to the game from time to time, I will not evaluate how certain moments from the original were adapted. I will speak only to the point, as if the title had no source, although again, it’s impossible to completely ignore the game. And all because the film adaptation itself gives the feeling that it is intended exclusively for people who are familiar with the creation of Yoko Taro, the game designer and screenwriter of Nier: Automata. The anime gives too little exposition for everything that happens, and therefore uninformed viewers will simply not understand many things. And this is what I see as the main problem of the title. A huge amount of necessary information has been left out, and it’s unfair to those who haven’t played the original.
Another disadvantage of anime is its crumpledness. The title literally flies. This is not surprising, because the authors decided to fit into 12 episodes events that require more than fifteen hours to complete in the game. That’s why we’re watching not so much a full-fledged feature film as an animated speedrun. But as if this were not enough, the authors also manage to drag out some scenes, and not even those that would be worth it. You don’t have a rubber timing to show the viewer how one of the enemy robots takes care of flowers for half the episode. No, I understand why this was done – they wanted to show us changes in the behavior of cars and evoke empathy. However, this is not the case when the authors should have allowed themselves to pay attention to unnecessary plot points.
Speaking of empathy for the characters, or rather, the lack thereof. It is quite natural that due to the transience of the narrative, few of the characters manage to evoke empathy in you. The same 2B walks around with one emotion throughout the entire anime and does not reveal herself at all. 9S looks better against its background. If his partner strictly adheres to the rules and acts according to protocol, then the guy in the coffin saw all these regulations. Even though he approaches his task responsibly, this does not prevent him from occasionally allowing himself to be distracted by extraneous factors. 9S is very inquisitive, he is especially interested in the culture of people who lived before the invasion of an alien race. In addition, the android boy is also quite hot-tempered when it comes to cars. He considers them just soulless mechanisms, and despite the fact that he himself is an artificial life form, he considers himself more of a people than a machine. It is precisely because of this contrast with 2B that her companion seems to be a more alive character.
Another character I liked would be Lily. She is the leader of the rebel squad that the protagonists joined. Her distrust of androids is based on the fact that the government never sent Yorha fighters to help the rebels, which is why they had to cope on their own all this time. And since there are more enemy machines, Lily managed to lose a lot of her people and came to terms with the fact that the settlers on the Moon left them to die. However, what else did I like about Lily’s character?. At some point in the plot, the fugitive android A2 will appear, and it turns out that several years ago she, Lily and several other fighters carried out a mission that ended in the death of everyone except these two, although the girl believed that A2 died along with everyone else. In the game, hints are given about their connection in a conversation with Lily, but nothing more. In the adaptation, an entire episode was dedicated to those events, for which I am grateful to the creators. Of course, the episode contains all the same disadvantages as the rest of the anime, but this episode copes with its task – revealing Lily’s character – quite well.
Moreover, this situation with Lily also demonstrates that authors can still go into the background when they consider it necessary. After all, in addition to the rebel leader, another character has a backstory. A robot named Pascal, who abandoned war, becoming a pacifist, and founded his own village, where the same peaceful machines now live. But the rest of the characters, as well as the lore, were no longer given such attention. And, most likely, everything again comes down to the short timing, because fitting the entire volume from the original (even if we take moments exclusively from the first playthrough) into miserable 12 episodes is an impossible task.
As a result, at the end of the first season, the viewer will probably be left with several questions. What was the motivation of the main antagonists, Adam and Eve?? Yes, after the death of his brother, Adam wanted to avenge him, but what was his plan before Eve was killed?? Why doesn’t the Council of People on the Moon help the rebels in any way if they, in theory, send them resources from Earth for survival? And why do the rebels continue to do this if the government abandoned them?? It is also unclear why people can become infected with a virus that spreads to androids and machines. I don’t argue that some of these questions will have to be answered in the second season, but given the production hell the first season went through, it is now unknown when we can expect a continuation, and whether we should expect it at all.
I can’t say much about the technical side of the anime either. The visuals are generally ordinary, although sometimes there are some very beautiful shots. And for some reason they added 3DCG graphics here. Maybe it was a kind of reference to the game, but only if 3D looks appropriate there, here it looked pathetic. But what was successfully borrowed from the original is the music. Probably the auditory part is the strongest component of this anime. Opening by Aimer, who may be familiar to you from songs from the titles Fate/Stay Night: Endless Blade and Demon Slayer: Red Light District, sounds great, even if it has mediocre visuals.
Nier: Automata is an anime aimed at someone unknown. Fans of the game will be unhappy that too much was cut out and not shown (well, unless you are happy with any film adaptation, as long as there is one). People unfamiliar with the game will simply not understand most of it, which is why they are unlikely to remain interested. Even as an entertaining action movie, this anime does not work, because the action here is uninventive and boring, and in addition, the 3D graphics hurt the eyes. There are some attempts at philosophy, even going as far as the ship of Theseus paradox. But such topics are only raised, but do not have any further development. Personally, I don’t see the point in waiting for the second season, since I’m sure that all the main problems of the prequel will migrate there too. I’d rather go through the game again, which I advise you to do too. The original almost always turns out to be better, I don’t argue, but sometimes you can get acquainted with the adaptation without the original source, but in this case it didn’t work, and it’s better not to get acquainted with the adaptation at all. The anime based on one of the best works of the great and terrible Yoko Taro turned out, unfortunately, to be a very sad spectacle.